The Inclusion Foundation highlights that 1.23m of the UK’s most vulnerable do not have access to a bank account and such disadvantaged segments of society find it very challenging to pay and get paid.
They report that the problem is being further exasperated by the social isolation measures put in place to curb the spread of COVID-19, which is having an unintended consequence for the socially vulnerable who also have less access to cash than ever before.
Against this backdrop it is encouraging to read of a Time Out Trailblazer, Lou Walker at HSBC UK:
We’ve pioneered a process that allows people with no fixed addresses to open bank accounts
Lou Walker, customer experience manager, Financial Inclusion and Vulnerability Team at HSBC UK.
According to the housing charity Shelter, a staggering 280,000 people were homeless in England in 2019.
As winter sets in, Covid-19 continues to make life even more difficult for the UK’s homeless population.
Thankfully, there are organisations out there empowering people to break the cycle of homelessness through training programmes, mentorships and the ability to open a bank account.
In partnership with HSBC UK, Time Out is telling their stories.
If you have no fixed address, it can be very difficult to open a bank account. And if you don’t have a bank account, it’s much harder to access benefits like Universal Credit, receive salary payments or secure a tenancy.
It’s a vicious cycle. The No Fixed Address Service was a follow-on to our Survivor Bank Service, where we opened bank accounts for victims of human trafficking and modern slavery.
It was such a success that we used it as a blueprint for other groups without accounts. Since organising a pilot in Liverpool in 2019, we have opened in excess of 500 accounts across the UK in collaboration with Shelter, Crisis and local charities like Centrepoint.
We are all human and deserve to be treated in the same way – it’s amazing what a difference a chat can make.
We have a member of the HSBC UK team who had been passing a man experiencing homelessness on the street corner near his office every day for years. He always stopped for a chat, and bought him a coffee and a sandwich. Once the service had launched, he provided support by contacting a local charity and opening a bank account for him.
He made such a difference to this person’s life.
We all can.
Lou Walker, customer experience manager, Financial Inclusion and Vulnerability Team at HSBC UK.
Discover more: Time Out: Meet the trailblazers.